This is a 5min video message from Haakon Karlsen Jr. to the FabLab community, since he could not make it to FAB8 this year. We have included some shots of how we used the plastic bender to make our hexacopter arms and the ShopBot to cnc mill the propellers. Continue Reading →
Here are the laser cutting source files for making the plastic bending machine at FabLab Lyngen. The plastic bender is a very handy tool for bending plastic parts made on the lasercutter. You will also need a steel rod, as well as some kind of transformer to put variable amounts of electricity through the rod. Haakon uses a small welding device. You leave your parts over the heated rod, after about one minute the plastic will be melted enough to fold the part by hand. If you want precision bends you can laser cut your own jigs. You can find some instructions in this video.
The insulating boxes at FabLab Lyngen are really smart. They drastically reduce the noise from the milling process and keeps the dust from floating around the room. You can download Haakon’s source files by pressing the “Download this design button”.
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We had a very very successful first test flight with our hexacopter. Extremely cool feeling to CNC mill your own propellers and then see them take off into the sky. Press the “Download this design button” to get our drawings for laser cutting and cnc milling. We would love all kinds of help on developing the flight electronics with the FabLab PCB milling process. A more detailed tutorial on building your own is coming soon.
We have started work on a six rotor multicopter here at FabLab Lyngen. I am planning to use the hexacopter to make aerial shots of FabLabs around the world. Knut Klo is will be creating 360 degree panoramas from the air. Our collaboration got kicked off by Knut buying the Dji Flamewheel kit and showing his first panorama shots to Haakon. Haakon quickly realized that we could make a better frame and propellers in the Lab, and now the three of us are collaborating on a FabLab hexacopter. Continue Reading →
I have made two more mountain chairs at FabLab Lyngen. One from Pollfjellet and one from Fornestind. I have developed a parametric system in Grasshopper that takes the input of a mountain profile and the height above sealevel, and outputs the milling files ready nested with part numbers. 13 more mountain chairs coming when I return to Haakons lab this winter. Continue Reading →
At MIT FabLab Lyngen, Haakon has a very interesting table and chair project going on. He is going to replace the main dining table with a large fjord-like table made from massive wood. And the chairs will be replaced with 16 tall ones, with profiles matching the 16 highest mountain peaks of the Lyngen Alps. After telling Haakon about my parametric chair project, there was no doubt that we had to combine our ideas. Continue Reading →
A group of master students at the University of Tromsø are in applying design thinking in their business processes. I introduced them to the international FabLab network and and the prototyping possibilities of FabLab Lyngen. They were very excited to learn about the new possibilities of implementing innovation through an open source FabLab approach.
I explained how digital design and manufacturing can be both used for product development and distribution. They learned to use the open source 2D vector program InkScape for quickly prototyping ideas in the FabLab, and applied these skills on some mock-ups ideas for their case study companies. Pictures by Joanna Grygieńć Continue Reading →
Some reflections around FabLab business models, the challenges of sharing and what makes a FabLab a FabLab. This is the digested result of many interesting discussions with Haakon Karlsen and other members of his FabLab:
There seems to be one message that is rather unavoidable to receive at MIT FabLab Norway: “FabLab’s are an open network of people who wants to cooperate and share knowledge globally”. I don’t know how many times Haakon has said this in his life, but he could probably never say it enough.
Global sharing and cooperation seems to be as challenging as it sounds beautiful. The FabLab community might already be one of the most successful examples of global cooperation, but there are many obstacles. And it seems like we have only reached a minuscule tip of an iceberg of what is possible to achieve when we truly cooperate. I think there are two major factors that needs to be improved in order to ensure future growth in cooperation. The first is that a FabLab will always need to be funded indirectly from some sort of commercial activity. And secondly, in order to share knowledge, the knowledge needs to be communicated in a universal language that everyone can understand. Continue Reading →
Haakon and Arild are developing a very interesting project called the Arctic Alps. The plan is to create a eco touristic hub for Lyngen. This includes a 30.000 square meter cave that will become the main resort as well as tunnels connecting the resort to a ferry terminal and the 1250m high summit of mount Goalsevarre.
I backcountry skiied up to the mountain peak called “Oksen” which is right on top of where the main resort cave will be. From there I captured a panorama that shows the 360 degrees view of the area. To show this in the lab, I animated the panorama into a looping movie.